Sept. 16, 2010
NORFOLK, Va. - The Old Dominion field hockey team will continue its rigorous non-conference schedule this weekend with a trip to Tobacco Road. The Lady Monarchs will take on defending national champions and current No. 1 North Carolina Friday before facing off against No. 9 Duke Sunday.
Old Dominion (1-5), which fell out of the NFHCA Top 20 for the first time this season, remains ranked (No. 20) in the womensfieldhockey.com poll.
The Lady Monarchs dropped a pair of home contests last weekend against No. 9 Syracuse (3-1) and No. 12 Ohio State (2-1). Senior Loran Hatch scored her team-high fourth goal against the Orange, while sophomore Maartje van Rijswijk tallied her first career goal as a Lady Monarch against the Buckeyes.
North Carolina is off to a 5-0 start and has outscored its opponents 25-2. Duke is 4-2 on the year with losses against Michigan State and Wake Forest.
The matchups with the Tar Heels and Blue Devils will be the seventh and eighth consecutive games for Old Dominion against Top 20 foes. According to the current NFHCA poll, ODU will have 14 games this season against ranked opponents.
The contest against UNC will get underway at 6 p.m. and the matchup with Duke will start at 1 p.m.
Old Dominion and North Carolina have played 68 times on the pitch with each team winning 33 to go along with a pair of ties. The Lady Monarchs are 19-11 all-time against the Blue Devils, including an overtime road win at Duke a year ago.
-ODU-